Comments on: Zahi Hawass and Beyonce: Pay No Attention to the Story Behind the Curtain http://emhotep.net/2009/11/16/egypt-in-the-news/zahi-hawass-and-beyonce-pay-no-attention-to-the-story-behind-the-curtain/ Egypt for the Curious Layperson and the Budding Scholar Thu, 10 May 2012 05:31:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Shemsu Sesen http://emhotep.net/2009/11/16/egypt-in-the-news/zahi-hawass-and-beyonce-pay-no-attention-to-the-story-behind-the-curtain/comment-page-1/#comment-911 Shemsu Sesen Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:53:53 +0000 http://emhotep.net/?p=3407#comment-911 Hi Gary, There is no need to hold back, tell us how you <em>really </em>feel! Just joking! Your frustration is understandable, and judging from statements that I have seen on the web and in print, you are far from being alone. Zahi Hawass has a public persona which has endeared him to the popular media, which has always portrayed him as the benevolent and indefatigable Gentleman Archaeologist, totally consumed by the history of Egypt. Always, that is, until now… It seems that the new History Channel series, <strong>Chasing Mummies</strong>, is going to present a side of Dr. Hawass that few of us have seen. While still presenting him as the tireless and obsessed scholar, I think much of your description is coming to the surface as well. It remains to be seen how this will affect his credibility. I suspect that those who have fallen for the Indiana Jones image will find him even more endearing as the “flawed hero.” But within the field of Egyptology I think there will be a combination of cringing and satisfied grinning. I don’t know to what degree <strong>Chasing Mummies </strong>will expose the ugly underbelly of the politics that often go on behind the scenes, and I don’t see how the issues of withholding due credit for the work of others and career assassination, as raised in the <strong><em>New Yorker </em></strong>article by Ian Parker and elsewhere, can be addressed in the context of the show. But I don’t think boycotting the series is the way to go. I am curious to see just how much of the other side of Zahi Hawass they are willing to show. Thank you for contributing, Gary! Hi Gary,

There is no need to hold back, tell us how you really feel! Just joking!

Your frustration is understandable, and judging from statements that I have seen on the web and in print, you are far from being alone. Zahi Hawass has a public persona which has endeared him to the popular media, which has always portrayed him as the benevolent and indefatigable Gentleman Archaeologist, totally consumed by the history of Egypt. Always, that is, until now…

It seems that the new History Channel series, Chasing Mummies, is going to present a side of Dr. Hawass that few of us have seen. While still presenting him as the tireless and obsessed scholar, I think much of your description is coming to the surface as well. It remains to be seen how this will affect his credibility. I suspect that those who have fallen for the Indiana Jones image will find him even more endearing as the “flawed hero.”

But within the field of Egyptology I think there will be a combination of cringing and satisfied grinning. I don’t know to what degree Chasing Mummies will expose the ugly underbelly of the politics that often go on behind the scenes, and I don’t see how the issues of withholding due credit for the work of others and career assassination, as raised in the New Yorker article by Ian Parker and elsewhere, can be addressed in the context of the show. But I don’t think boycotting the series is the way to go. I am curious to see just how much of the other side of Zahi Hawass they are willing to show.

Thank you for contributing, Gary!

]]> By: Gary Fletcher http://emhotep.net/2009/11/16/egypt-in-the-news/zahi-hawass-and-beyonce-pay-no-attention-to-the-story-behind-the-curtain/comment-page-1/#comment-910 Gary Fletcher Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:13:32 +0000 http://emhotep.net/?p=3407#comment-910 Zahi HawASS is self centered ,arrogant whack job.In his eyes he is the center of the universe and deserves all of your attention and worship.He is much like the dictators that came before him(mussolini etc.) His mouth is full of cancerous venom and he needs to be silenced.This man is pure evil in the likeness of Antichrist. BOYCOTT CHASING MUMMIES! Zahi HawASS is self centered ,arrogant
whack job.In his eyes he is the center of the universe and deserves all of your attention and worship.He is much like the dictators that
came before him(mussolini etc.) His mouth is
full of cancerous venom and he needs to be
silenced.This man is pure evil in the likeness of Antichrist. BOYCOTT CHASING MUMMIES!

]]> By: Jan http://emhotep.net/2009/11/16/egypt-in-the-news/zahi-hawass-and-beyonce-pay-no-attention-to-the-story-behind-the-curtain/comment-page-1/#comment-438 Jan Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:04:02 +0000 http://emhotep.net/?p=3407#comment-438 The New Yorker article brings out some important pieces of information. (quoted below) ""Dr Kathleen Martinez (from Dominican Republic) was previously a successful criminal-defence attorney; she had no formal training in archaeology when she arrived in Cairo, in 2005."" Supposedly, she is privately funding the dig while others are not given permission by the SCA unless affiliated with a university. Hawass has just received a honorary degree from the Dominican Republic!! ""In April Hawass spoke to journalists at the temple (Taposiris Magna) and showed them a number of objects that he said had been recently discovered there, including a gray granite life size fragment of a face, tentatively identified as an image of Marc Antony, said to have been found by Martinez and the Dominican-Egyptian expedition, The claim was false: the face fragment had been found long before Martinez ever reached Taposiris Magna. A Hungarian archaeological team worked at the site from 1998-2004, and found the fragment in October, 2000. It was described and photographed in two reports published by the team, in 2001 and 2004. In order for the fragment to have been presented as a new discovery at Hawass's press conference, it must have been removed from its place in the collection of the Greco-Roman Museum, in Alexandria, which is currently closed for renovation."" The Italians Alfredo and Angelo Castiglioni (looking for Cambyses Army) have been called frauds by Hawass because they are not heading any university mission granted permission to dig, by the SCA "so anything they claim to find is not be believed". In 2006 the KV63 team found a object seal with part of the name ...Aten They have to have permission from Hawass to publish or comment on this. It did however appear in an early Discovery documentary. All enquiries about it are met with the reply "soon". My thoughts that this has been kept back by Hawass to later be produced to prove that the tomb in the Central Valley of the Kings is that of AnkhesenAmun or others associated with the Amarna era, is sadly supported by the fact that he has done this before, with the Taposiris Magna find, taken from a closed museum and newly 'found' to support his theory. Will it happen again? The New Yorker article brings out some important pieces of information.
(quoted below)
“”Dr Kathleen Martinez (from Dominican Republic) was previously a successful criminal-defence attorney; she had no formal training in archaeology when she arrived in Cairo, in 2005.”"
Supposedly, she is privately funding the dig while others are not given permission by the SCA unless affiliated with a university. Hawass has just received a honorary degree from the Dominican Republic!!
“”In April Hawass spoke to journalists at the temple (Taposiris Magna) and showed them a number of objects that he said had been recently discovered there, including a gray granite life size fragment of a face, tentatively identified as an image of Marc Antony, said to have been found by Martinez and the Dominican-Egyptian expedition,
The claim was false: the face fragment had been found long before Martinez ever reached Taposiris Magna. A Hungarian archaeological team worked at the site from 1998-2004, and found the fragment in October, 2000. It was described and photographed in two reports published by the team, in 2001 and 2004. In order for the fragment to have been presented as a new
discovery at Hawass’s press conference, it must have been removed from its place in the collection of the Greco-Roman Museum, in Alexandria, which is currently closed for renovation.”"
The Italians Alfredo and Angelo Castiglioni (looking for Cambyses Army) have been called frauds by Hawass because they are not heading any university mission granted permission to dig, by the SCA “so anything they claim to find is not be believed”.
In 2006 the KV63 team found a object seal with part of the name …Aten
They have to have permission from Hawass to publish or comment on this. It did however appear in an early Discovery documentary.
All enquiries about it are met with the reply “soon”. My thoughts that this has been kept back by Hawass to later be produced to prove that the tomb in the Central Valley of the Kings is that of AnkhesenAmun or others associated with the Amarna era, is sadly supported by the fact that he has done this before, with the Taposiris Magna find, taken
from a closed museum and newly ‘found’ to support his theory. Will it happen again?

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